‘What one can see is the present, the dimension of landscape which is in front of us now. But now is shaped by the past, backed by it, as it were, the way the glass of a mirror is backed by silver; it’s what lies behind the present that gives it its color and sheen. […]
Author: chriscreegan
My mother and me: on making sense of lifetimes lived and the one I never had
‘I think, like me, you have had quite a few lifetimes,’ remarked an old friend after we met up recently for the first time in more than 20 years. I have reflected on that message in the run up to today, the first anniversary of the day I learned my mother had died. My friend […]
Jake Wightman’s victory in Eugene speaks to the best our sport can be
Asked on the BBC by Jeanette Kwakye how many times he had watched back his gold medal-winning 1500m race at the World Championships, Jake Wightman’s answer, for all its modesty, was a reminder of the gulf between his participation in athletics and mine. He had seen it first while in anti-doping after the race, not […]
All we have ever wanted is to live our best lives — Jake Daniels’ courage means many more might do just that
The term ‘breaking news’ has become a byline for shocking news of late. So, when Evan Davies uttered those words towards the end of this afternoon’s PM, I braced myself. Was this to be news of yet further atrocities in Ukraine? I was, as it happens, driving home from a weekly session with my personal […]
How I caught up with running – and why I won’t stop yet
It was a slightly indifferent way to end the season. My legs felt heavy after nine races in five months. And after a cautious start — at north of 10k, the course demanded it — I didn’t quite work my way through the field the way I’d hoped. By the final lap of three, energy […]
‘It’s A Sin’ was so much more than a TV show — a year on, I carry it in my heart
In the dead of night over Christmas 1988, I became aware that hardly any of my fingernails had a lunula. I was 27. Until that very moment, their absence had completely passed me by. A lunula is the half-moon shape at the base of your nail, just above the cuticle. The realisation came as I […]
The epidemic is a shitstorm — I don’t need the daily news to know it’s there
“I’ve asked so many people if they know anyone who has had Covid. Hardly anyone. Two people knew someone (not close) who’d died. Without daily news would we even know there was an epidemic?” I don’t know which world Allison Pearson inhabits. I’m sure, once upon a time, it collided with mine as the viewer […]
When plagues meet: if we can learn from the past we can change the future
“I guess the last lesson I’ve learned as an AIDS activist and the hardest one to learn, is that fights are never won. They just go on and on. They are. And yet they must be fought. They must, must, still, continually, and forever, be fought. Over and over and over, they must be fought.” […]
There are reasons to be cheerful…but only for a moment
Half a lifetime ago, on a bright, crisp December day in Harrogate, I was reunited with an old friend. We had first met 12 years before at university — as politics students, fellow Labour Club members and union hacks. Tragedy had brought us together again — the premature death of a mutual friend who had […]
The Pope may be late to the party, but make no mistake — he’s a star guest
“Go for a long hard run, take a cold shower, and avoid the occasion of sin.” My dad’s closing words in a letter he wrote to me 40 years ago. And the first that came to me as I read this afternoon that Pope Francis has said he thinks same-sex couples should be afforded legal […]